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County's inaction costs its neighbors

Spotsylvania supervisors' indecisiveness on Virginia Railway Express has negative impact on county's neighbors

Date published: 3/8/2009

By DAN TELVOCK

In the more than two decades that Spotsylvania County supervisors have debated joining Virginia Railway Express, their indecisiveness has had a negative effect on their neighbors.

Matt Kelly, a Fredericksburg city councilman who serves on the VRE Operations Board, sent an e-mail to Spotsylvania Supervisor Jerry Logan in an attempt to persuade him to vote in favor of joining VRE.

Kelly told Logan that one of the reasons Stafford County and Fredericksburg are having financial challenges in funding their shares of the VRE subsidy is because of the estimated 1,000 Spotsylvania riders who take VRE trains.

"I've yet to hear a member of the Spotsylvania Board of Supervisors acknowledge these, and other impacts, Spotsylvania residents are having on our communities," Kelly wrote.

Area localities use a 2 percent gasoline sales tax to pay their share of VRE and administrative fees for the Potomac and Rappahannock Transportation Commission, a regional agency that oversees commuter rail. The remainder of the tax revenue can be used for other transportation projects.

For the first time in Stafford's partnership with VRE, county leaders are seeing gas-tax revenue decline to a point where it no longer covers all the costs of the VRE subsidy and PRTC fees.

"Jerry [Logan] needs to understand that the reason Stafford is having this problem is because Spotsylvania has not got off their you-know-what and joined VRE," Kelly said during an interview.

Logan expressed concerns that if Spotsylvania joins, it could eventually have to dip into general tax dollars to fund VRE. Although fiscal 2010 estimates show the county could see an influx of $1.5 million extra from the gas tax, Logan fears the number will decrease rapidly because VRE funding levels are based on ridership and not population.

He said Spotsylvania's impact on its neighbors weighs heavily on his mind. But he's uneasy about voting to join VRE.

"I do feel that there is a fairness issue there," Logan said. "I am very sensitive to that."

Logan questions how PRTC comes up with the figure that Spotsylvania will get $1.5 million in extra gas-tax revenue when Stafford's is declining. "Do they actually have some hard data that they are using, or are they just grabbing numbers out of the air?"

Al Harf, executive director of the PRTC, said that when producing an estimate for Spotsylvania, he used an average yield of revenue dollars per capita.

"That's why the Spotsylvania estimate is slightly higher than the Stafford estimate even though populations of the two jurisdictions are basically the same."

Dan Telvock: 540/374-5438
Email: dtelvock@freelancestar.com

What if? ESTIMATED REVENUES, COSTS The Potomac and Rappahannock Transportation Commission estimates that if Spotsylvania County joined VRE on July 1, 2009, local jurisdictions' costs and revenues for fiscal 2010 would be: Spotsylvania: Gas-tax revenue: $3,069,619 VRE subsidy: $1,523,164 PRTC fee: $44,500 Available for other projects: $1,501,955 Stafford: Gas-tax revenue: $2,995,020 VRE subsidy: $2,653,037 PRTC fee: $52,200 If Spotsylvania did not join, Stafford's VRE subsidy would be $2,971,727. Fredericksburg: Gas-tax revenue: $1 million VRE subsidy: $446,222 PRTC fee: $18,200 If Spotsylvania did not join, Fredericksburg's VRE subsidy would be $508,503.

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Date published: 3/8/2009

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